Cherry Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherries
Seed the cherries carefully.
Measure an equal amount of sugar to the fruit.
Sprinkle half the sugar over the cherries and let them stand for about 1 hour.
Cook the syrup
Pour the cherries into a preserving kettle and boil slowly for 10 minutes.
Skim out the cherries.
Add the remaining sugar to the syrup.
Boil the syrup. Skim if necessary.
Pour it over the cherries.
Drain off the syrup.
Boil it. Skim if necessary.
Add the cherries back to the syrup.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Seal
Seal the mixture in small jars.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Sour cherries
- Provide the fruit that forms the body and tart flavour of the preserves.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, as it dissolves and thickens into syrup, preserves the cherries.
The step that matters
Boil the syrup until it is ready before adding the cherries back. Sugar draws water out of the fruit and the syrup must be concentrated enough to set and preserve the cherries. Boiling the syrup separately first lets it thicken without overcooking the fruit, which otherwise can turn mushy or tough.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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